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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Joe, for agreeing to be part of this Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Joe Vitale: Well, I’m Joe Vitale.  I’ve written numerous books, including the recent one, Attract Money Now.

Toni: Well thank you, Joe, for being here.

Joe: Of course.

Toni: So Joe, when you think of that word inspiration, who do you inspire, and how does it happen?

Joe: Well, I’m hoping I’m inspiring the people reading my books or watching the movies or listening to my audios.  I’ve felt since a very early age that my mission is to inspire people to go for and achieve their dreams.  So I’m hoping I’m doing that through everything that I’m producing and sharing with the world.

Toni: Joe, forgive those of us who may not be familiar with this body of work that you have created.  Can you help us understand, how does that inspiration happen?  How does someone learn from Joe?

Joe: Well, I would hope the primary reason or way that they learn from me is through my books.  I’ve been writing books since 1985.  I’ve written 52 books.  The most famous is probably my book, The Attractor Factor that got me into the movie “The Secret” and, of course, that got me all over the place, all over the globe.  I do all of this to teach people to look within themselves, find their goal, their calling, their mission, their life purpose, and then give them the techniques and the encouragement to go for it.  This is what I’m doing with my production of books and audios and DVDs.

Toni: Joe, there’s been a theme that’s been flushing out, unintentionally, through the Get Inspired! Project, and it is, whether it’s been a jazz musician to a hypnotist to a hospice worker, and people are talking about, with these questions, their passion and purpose.  When you are inspiring others to find that passion and purpose, what do you think is the number one thing that they have to do?  What happens?  What do you give them or teach someone that they can start to look towards that passion and purpose?

Joe: Well, there’s two or three things that I always ask people to do.  One of them is to pretend that they were already wealthy.  Everything’s paid for.  They won the lottery, and it was up to 65 million dollars, and after they paid taxes and went around the world 50 times and bought 30 cars and five homes and did everything that they wanted to do and indulged themselves, they wake up one morning – what are they going to do now?  That will help lead them to their inspired path.

Another thing I ask people to do is remember when they were a child, and what did you do for fun?  What did you do for your pastime?  What was your hobby?  What did you do for relaxation?  What did you say you wanted to do when you grew up?  And that can be anything from “I wanted to be a fireman” to “I wanted to be the President” and anything in between.  So I encourage people to look within themselves to find their own inspiration.

I end up telling my story, hopefully to inspire them, because I was homeless 30-some years ago.  I was in poverty for a very long time, and here I am with all these books and TV appearances and everything else.  And so I tell this story only to say “Look, wherever you’re at right now is only your temporary current reality, and it will change as soon as you start following your inspiration.”

And your inspiration is as available as your next breath.  You just have to look within yourself and say “Okay, if I was carefree and everything was paid …” or “If I was a child again, what would I be doing?  What would I be creating?  What would I be serving?  What would my inspirational path be?”  That all helps to lead in the right direction.

Toni: How does that help people then explore their potential?  Once they figure that piece out, what happens after that?

Joe: Well, they have to go and do it.  I’m a great believer in taking action, and you can’t just think about these things.  You can’t just nod your head and go “Oh, that’s a great idea, that feels wonderful, and that was a wonderful moment.”  You have to then implement it.  You have to bring it to life.

I really believe that each of us has an inspired path, and when we start following our inspired path, everything comes together.  We start to feel happier.  We start to feel healthier.  I think our prosperity increases, our wellbeing increases, our connection with the other people and with the Universe increases, all when we start following that inspiration.

So for me you have to take action.  I am the guy whose middle name is action.  You don’t write 52 books without taking action.  You don’t appear in all these movies without taking action.  You don’t fulfill your own life purpose without taking action.  So I say, once you find your inspired path, breathe life into it by getting up and doing something to implement it.

And usually it will be something fun, because when you’re following inspiration and you’re now living this inspired life, you’re doing what’s bringing you the greatest joy, so it’s not real effort.  You’re certainly doing things; you’re certainly taking action, but it’s not that sweaty action that you always complained about.  It’s no longer work.  Now it’s your life passion, and you bring it into reality.  That’s when it becomes really, really cool.

Toni: So not to take away the hard work that’s going to occur when you’re working on your passion, but what I’m hearing from you is that it’s the hard work of figuring out what inspires you, to get away from what might be having you tangled, to go back to what does bring you inspiration.  That may be very hard for people.

Joe: It might be, but I think it’s only hard work when they resist it.  I think actually the answer is there, and when they follow the answer that they do know what to do and they’re willing to do it.  But most of us resist our own good.  I have been asked several times from people that would say things like “I don’t really know what I want to do in my life.  I don’t really know what my path is.  I don’t really know what my inspiration is.

And when they come to me for that, I’m rather blunt, and I say “Look, you’re lying.  You’re lying to yourself and you’re lying to me, and maybe you’re lying consciously, maybe you’re lying unconsciously, but you are lying.”

Now, why would somebody lie about their inspired path, about their calling, about taking action?  It’s because as soon as they admit what they know they’re here to do, they have to take responsibility for it.  They then have to either do it or not do it and have a rationale for whatever approach they’re taking.

Most people will find it easier to just cop out.  They’ll just say “I don’t know my inspired path.  I don’t know what I’m supposed to do next.  I don’t know what I really want to do with my life.  I don’t know what makes me happy.”  That’s all BS.  It’s self-deception.  It’s self-sabotage.

And so if somebody is in that mindset, yeah, it’s going to feel like hard work because they’re dodging their own answer.  But when they accept the reality that we’re co-creating everything in our life as it is right now, and you can live an uninspired life, or you can live an inspired life.  It really is a choice.

Henry David Thoreau said “Most people are leading this life of quiet desperation.”  Most people still are, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  Turn within, find what inspires you, take action on what inspires you, and the life path becomes easier.

Toni: So Joe, I think this is going to be a very easy question for you to answer – what inspires you?

Joe: Interesting.  I don’t know what you’re imagining my answer would be, but I’ll tell you this.  I am inspired by all the people who have gone before me, most of which have written books about what they’ve done.

I’m still a bookaholic.  I write them, read them, collect them, buy them, share them, and so forth.  I just love books.  Even when I was homeless, my salvation was going into the public library.  Anybody can go there for free.  All the wisdom of the Universe, right there on the shelves.  I’d pick it up, I’d start reading, and these people, whether it was Jack London or William Saroyan, some of the classic writers that have written some of the greatest American literature – those people inspired me.  Those people encouraged me through their words, through their books, to reach for something more, and I’m always looking for that today.

There was a fellow by the name of Allen Carr who created a way to stop smoking, stop cigarette smoking, and he died – he got lung cancer and died because he believed in his mission.  Now when I hear stories like this, I am inspired to do bigger and better things.  So I’m looking for the people out there who are the trailblazers, the people who are either writing books or just … you know, Benjamin Franklin said “Either do things with writing or write things worth reading in order to really make a difference in the world.”  I look for those kind of people to be inspired by.

Toni: Joe, what was … how did you have the courage to change your life?  That’s been pretty apparent through the Project as well with other interviews.  There’s been some phenomenal changes that people have gone through in order to change their life.  Did you … was it an event, a process?  What happened that got you to this point?

Joe: I’m often asked how did I go from homeless nobody to this celebrity with these bestselling books and everything else, and I used to be frustrated with the question, because I thought “Well, how do I answer that?”  Until I finally realized that the best answer is to say “I did everything.”

I did everything.  I read the books, I read the articles, I listened to the audios, I attended the events.  I took action.  I worked on myself.  I worked on my beliefs.  I worked on my self-esteem and deservingness.  I kept moving forward.  I would learn marketing techniques.  I would learn about publishing.  I would keep working on myself as an author, as a writer, and I would just keep taking action, just kept doing everything that occurred to me to do to move forward.

So the reason isn’t really due to courage, it had to do more with I did not like the reality I was living.  I did not like being homeless.  I did not like being in poverty.  I did not like being unpublished and struggling.  What I wanted was this vision, this inspired life that was awake in my brain and in my soul.  I wanted to breathe life into that, so it was my waking reality.

And so I just kept working until that became my reality today.  And the life I have today is so dramatically different than what I had when I was homeless in Dallas decades ago that it’s almost unbelievable, but it happens to a lot of people.  There have been many people who have been homeless and they went on and they became inspired leaders or authors and making a difference in the world.

How do you do this?  You do it by constantly picking yourself up and moving forward and following inspiration.  That’s what it takes.

Toni: And the final question of the Project is, what are you doing now to explore your own potential so that you can keep moving forward and taking action, but then everyone can learn from that action as well?

Joe: Yeah … well, I keep raising the bar on myself.  I used to be a runner, and I knew that during those days they had this wonderful phrase “Exceed your personal best.”  It had nothing to do with competition.  It didn’t matter if you won a particular race.  What mattered is that you did better than the last time you ran.  And so I’m always raising the bar for myself to raise my own personal best.

One of the things I’ve created is a movement called Operation Yes, and Operation Yes is a movement to end homelessness in America.  And it seems like a big, wild, preposterous idea, yet I believe it’s possible, and I’ve already implemented it.  I’ve got a team together.  We’ve got a website up at operationyes.com.  We’re working on a book for Operation Yes.  I’ve got people ready to do a seminar with me on Operation Yes.  I’ve got media lined up.  I’ve got CNN that’s already been filming me about homelessness and ending homelessness.  I’m working with another partner who’s already ending poverty in America.

It’s all coming together.  Why is this coming together?  Because I got the inspiration that it was possible, and then I took action to make it happen, and now we’re following through.  As I do this, I’m inspiring myself, I’m inspiring the people who hear about this project, and I’m helping people realize that I don’t care what it is that you’re looking for or trying to achieve, I don’t think there’s anything impossible.

We don’t know the limits of reality, and what we have to do is go out there and test them.  What I’m doing, which is coming from inspiration, is working to end homelessness with Operation Yes.

Toni: That’s fantastic.  And you have absolutely brought a deeper meaning to that word inspiration in the Get Inspired! Project, and really, listening to you, Get Inspired! Project, based on your interview, could be all about getting to action, and listening to all of these people, yourself included, who have done amazing things to move themselves forward.

We can’t wait to follow this Operation Yes to see what happens next with you, and people will have all of your links at the bottom of the transcript so that they can find out more about you or buy your books.  Joe, the time you’ve taken today to be part of this Project, I cannot thank you enough for that.

Joe: You are very welcome.  It’s a great Project, and I encourage you to go forth with it.  So Godspeed to you and everybody listening.

Toni: Thank you so much.  Take care, Joe.

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For more information about Joe Vitale:  www.JoeVitale.com, www.AttractMoneyNow.com, www.OperationYes.com

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Brian, for agreeing to take part in this Project and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Brian O’Neal: Hello.  My name is Brian O’Neal, and I am a professional, national recording artist and CEO and founder of DO Foundation nonprofit for the homeless.

Toni: Okay, and just so that we have a little bit of background, can you give us a summary of what is the DO Foundation?

Brian: The DO Foundation … well actually the word DO really stands for Daisy O’Neal which is my late grandmother, and it’s named after her because that’s the person who inspired me my entire life for music and helping the homeless, and also it’s short for “do something.”  I notice a lot of people in the world do a lot of talking about homelessness and poverty, but they don’t actually do anything.  So the title DO Foundation … we really prefer DO Something as a Foundation, but that name was taken, so it is DO Foundation.

Toni: Well thank you for that, and at the end of your interview post people who read and follow the Get Inspired! Project will be able to be see how to reach your Foundation, and also we’re going to post it on the Project page.

So, let’s go into the very first question, Brian.  When you think about inspiration, who do you inspire and how do you think you do that?

Brian: Who do I inspire?

Toni: Yes.

Brian: I think I inspire many people who follow my music.  That actually started when I started recording music which is what they call “smooth jazz.”  I kind of hate that title but … I started out by inspiring a lot of other musicians.  They watched me pretty much teach myself how to play, since I’d never taken lessons.  All the while, I was a software developer working 12 hours a day on a computer, and I’d go home and I’d record all of this music and take it back to work.

I’d notice a lot of my coworkers were wanting to do the same thing.  Not necessarily record music, but want to branch out and do other things in life.  They figured well, if you’re a software developer, how in the world are you going to be able to go home and be a full-time musician too?  I started inspiring people that way, and they would tell me that quite often, kind of going in one ear and out the other, because I felt, you know, no matter what you tell me, I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

Their words of encouragement was okay, but it felt deep down inside I was really trying to impress my parents because my parents, as I was growing up, they always told me to never do music, I’d be crazy for trying to be a musician.  They were very non-supportive.  My dad would say typical things like “Get a real job.  Being a musician is not a real job.”  He associated drugs and alcohol, women, and sex and all that … rock and roll, playing in bars.

So I spent a lot of time working on that music and, like I said, a lot of coworkers would … I would inspire a lot of my coworkers and, in return, they would make a lot of comments about that.

Well, it was recently, Toni, that I walked off that job to do music full time, and I noticed my music changed.  It became more intense, and I developed a pretty large fan base.  Pretty much all the remarks that I get from my fans is how inspiring the music is.

And by the way, the music that I do does not contain lyrics, so part of my mission is to educate my fan base and even the world with music, stating that you can say a lot of things without saying words.

Toni: That’s a great sentiment.

Brian: Yes, there’s actually a track on my recent CD called “No Words Necessary”, and there’s a video that goes with it, and the video is a lot of things that could happen to a person or things that we do day-to-day that are expressed without saying words.  It’s pretty nifty.

Toni: When you talk about the way that you inspire others through your music and also by setting the example that you did by staying passionate about your music and then ultimately making that decision, you know, the belief without evidence move, to do what you love and feeling that difference.  To me that’s all about taking action.  And is that something that you also do … you talked about your professional life … is that what you do in your personal life, how you inspire others?  Is that what you’ve done with the DO Foundation is to take that action?

Brian: Yes.  Well, the music actually led to the DO Foundation and, because I’m a jazz artist, that’s actually doing videos to songs that I don’t have lyrics to.  It causes people to actually really watch the video and what’s going on, and really listen to the music.  Because my fan base grew from that, a lot of people opened up and said “Hey, this is different; a video without a singer.  There’s all instruments doing all the speaking.”

That kind of set the platform for me to actually say things verbally and people would listen.  And because I’ve always had the other passion of helping other human beings, homelessness and poverty, the few times that I mentioned that to my fan base, the reaction was just overwhelming.   People were listening.  So here I have a stage to speak and people would listen; I would have a very large audience.

I had written a song called “Dreams in Color” and it’s about homelessness, and I actually spent two weeks as a homeless person to film the footage for that.  I merged it with the song, made the video, put it online, and got hundreds of thousands of hits on that.

The messages that I got from people were basically that I inspired them to actually notice homeless people.  We’ve got people who walked around every day, regular people like you and myself that step over homeless people, ignore them, and homeless people are actually considered … or they consider themselves invisible.  The two weeks I was on the streets, I got a chance to talk with many of them, and the biggest gripe is “Why do people ignore us?  Why do people think that we’re not here?  Why can’t people help us?”  So that’s in the video.  That message is very strong in that video.

Toni: By putting this out there and showcasing with your music and then the song that you’ve written and taking this cause, how do you think then that that helps other people explore their potential, by what you’ve done?  How might that then help somebody else explore their own potential?

Brian: Well, it causes them to stop and think, and … it’s kind of hard to explain.  I get so many messages from people on how it changes their lives and how they’re inspired.  Basically, what they see in the video and what they hear in the music, it really causes them to slow down and actually look, listen, feel.  And they also realize that they are passionate people inside, and it doesn’t matter what their peers think, because peer pressure seems to be one of the biggest things that holds people back.

It actually held me back for a while when I was younger.  Peer pressure meaning that a lot of my friends that were going to sports would say “You’d don’t want to be a musician”, or “You don’t want go into computer science, because you’re not going to make that much money, you’re not going to have the women.”

Even with more mature people today, and I speak with a lot of my fans and they told me that they don’t  help homeless people or they won’t stop and give a dollar because if they’re with a few girlfriends, they’re embarrassed, or they don’t want the homeless person to follow them, or they’re afraid of something.

So it causes them to open up and realize that they are human, homeless people are human, and we all have the right to have help.

Toni: So, when you are inspiring others through your music or the work that you’re doing with this Foundation, it’s really setting an example in  a very unique way for others to say it’s okay, let’s, like you said, stop, think, slow down, look, listen, and then I also heard that you’re asking people to move through their own fear.

Brian: Yes.  I notice that it’s working much better, and I’m able to reach a larger crowd when I do things first.  Because I’m in the limelight as an artist, as a national recording artist, people are watching me.  When I shot the video, I was on the streets for two weeks, and I didn’t know it would have that type of impact with my current fans, the fact that I truly went homeless.  I was a bum, and I was out there.  That brought in 2,000 or 3,000 more fans – brand new fans who had never heard of me.  Those people are still following me.  After realizing that because I’m in the limelight like that through my music status, things that I say and do, people are watching.

Toni: Right.

Brian: They follow by example.

Toni: Well then let me ask you this, Brian, what do you need to be inspired?  You’re out there inspiring others, you’re aware of it, so what do you need to stay inspired and to be inspired?

Brian: Well, I’m inspired … that’s a tough one, because I think that’s just who I am and how I’m made.  I think I give my late grandmother, Daisy O’Neal, the credit because she was one awesome woman.  She gave to any and everyone.  She’d give her last dollar to anyone, total strangers.

Coming up as a child, she always told me things like “Brian, if you want to do music, you do music.  If that makes you most happy, that’s what you do.  Don’t listen to your friends, don’t listen to your parents when they tell you get a job to make a lot of money, get a job that’s going to allow you to travel and buy big houses and things like that.  If music is in you and that’s makes you happy, then that’s what you do.”

I remember her saying that many times around age six or seven,  and that kind of kept me going the rest of my life, and I’ve taught my own children that.  I’ve spread that to others, like my best friends and other people in the family, and I notice large changes in them.  I notice that they are happy.  They may not be as rich as they want to be, but as people they’re much happier.

Toni: So when you think about … when you’re going “You know what?  I need to fill my own bucket here.  I need to find inspiration and seek inspiration.”  I heard that acts of kindness inspire you and following your purpose inspires you … what else do you find inspiring?  For you?

Brian: Music.

Toni: Music.

Brian: Not my own music.  Music does so much for me and not the typical top 40 stuff and things on the radio.  I find the most inspiring music is music that’s attached to visual things like the music that’s in movies.  I can sit and watch the most exciting visual movie, but it’s that music that’s behind the scenes that’s driving me.  I can actually go to a movie theater and close my eyes the whole time and really get into the music.

Most people don’t realize that almost every single thing you watch on television, commercials and all, has music behind it; that’s what I’m listening to.  I can be staring at the television, but I don’t really see much, but I hear everything.  Instruments speak to me and instruments inspire me a lot, and there’s a handful of them that do the trick for me.  The cello.  The sound of the cello does it, hands down.

Toni: Yeah.

Brian: Anything with a cello, yeah, that does it for me.  Second would probably be oboe, and then piano, and acoustic guitar.

Toni: And so, Brian, you’ve been very honest with how you inspire, what inspires you, the acts of kindness to people following their passion, music … what are you doing and what will you continue to do so that you can keep exploring your own potential?

Brian: I will continue being a musician for one, because it’s in my blood and I’ve learned that that is the engine that drives me.  They say music is the universal language of the world; that is so true.  If music goes away, or I’m not able to hear music or feel it, it would probably stop me right in my tracks.

Toni: So, staying connected to the music.  Is that through your own writing that you’ll continue with growing your own potential?  Is it writing?  What does that mean for you?

Brian: Well, it’s pretty much all of it.  I am a composer first.  The performing aspect of it, I do a lot of performing and I travel the country.  That’s fun, and it’s nice to play for an audience and to feel what they feel right there in the same room.  But if anything had to go away, I wouldn’t mind if that part goes away.  I could stay home every day the rest of my life just composing music for other people and myself.

But as long as I’m able to hear music and continue to appreciate it the way I do, that keeps me going.  That’s the rest of my life, no matter what happens.  If there’s no Do Foundation, there’s no touring, there’s no fancy house in the mountains and fancy car, as long as I have ears and my two hands and at least one instrument, I’m happy.

Toni: Only one.

Brian: Well, minimum one.  I play about seven, but, you know, I could do everything with a piano.

Toni: Well, you have been really kind today to give up your time to be a part of the Get Inspired! Project, particularly knowing that you’re going to be going back out on the street, you said, tomorrow.  What’s so interesting about this interview is that even though your passion is in music — and that’s really come out loud and clear throughout this interview — but it’s interesting that your passion is putting the music out there without any words so that the message speaks louder than the words, and you’ve started a Foundation about doing something without screaming it from the mountaintop; that’s pretty awesome.

Brian: And by example.

Toni: And by example, absolutely.

Brian: The more I do, the more the people around me do and then that just kind of spreads, and so on.

Toni: It does.  It really does.  Well, we will definitely have a way for people to get ahold of you and, as I said in the beginning of the interview, we will spotlight your Foundation and I’m sure there’s people that are going to be listening and reading this that will want to hear your music as well, so thank you, Brian, very much, for this interview today.  Good luck to you going back on the street, stay safe, and hopefully we will reconnect in the future.

Brian: Thank you so much for taking your time and interviewing me.  I so appreciate it.

Toni: You’re welcome.  Take care, Brian.

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For more information about Brian O’Neal:  www.dofoundation.net, info@dofoundation.net

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Kelly, for giving your time today and being with us on the Get Inspired! Project.  Before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Kelly Adolph: My name is Kelly Adolph, and I do artist management for BCO Media, Incorporated, in addition to being a published author.

Toni: Wow!  Well, let’s go right into the questions, Kelly.  When you think about inspiration, who do you think you inspire and how do you do that?

Kelly: When I think of inspiration, I know who I hope to inspire.  I’ve always longed to inspire young adults and teenagers, because they’re the leaders of tomorrow.  And I like to do things … I like to speak honestly, candidly, present all options so that instead of having a closed mind growing up, they can have an open mind, and it encourages them to do better.

Toni: Right.  I would imagine it does.  How do you get in front of that group of people?

Kelly: I’m a mom of three … well, not teens anymore, my oldest is 21 now, but I’ve started … I don’t know, when I was the house with all the kids that kids used to come to, and I just sort of took on, I wouldn’t say motherly role, but sort of a sisterly role to them because I allowed them to speak to me as a friend and open up.  I’ve been able to channel through kids that way; also, through my writing.  I try to write in a formation that younger adults can understand, not so much for people who’ve already experienced life, but for those who have yet to experience certain things in life.

Toni: How do you think that by doing that, Kelly, helps them to explore their own potential?

Kelly: I think it gives them … I think having my story told or sharing other stories with people, I think it gives them an okay to go after their own dreams.  Because a lot of times kids — and I know myself, and I know from Brian, I’m sure after speaking to him — parents don’t encourage their kids to follow their dreams or follow their hearts.

They might have a passion for something within them and they’re afraid to pursue it because it’s not said to be the way to go.  As an adult, you have to do … I know I was raised by my parents, my father, to … you’re supposed to … it’s a structure.  You’re supposed to … you’re born, you go to school, you go to college, you get a job, you take care of your family, you go, you die … that was just it.

It’s a lot more to life than that.  It’s a lot more enjoyable things.  You can earn a career in doing the things that you love to do.

Toni: So, Kelly, what kind of books have you written?

Kelly: Mostly … I’ve written two that’s been published.  They’re both inspirational fiction.

Toni: Inspirational fiction?

Kelly: Yes.

Toni: What are they about?

Kelly: The first one is titled Perilous Times of a Young Black Woman, and that was a story of a young woman who didn’t really have … who had a hard time coming in life.  I kind of had her experience.  A lot of the things that some people experience in their lifetimes, like molestation or rape or physical or verbal abuse, just things that some kids … it’s behind closed doors.  People don’t understand what’s going on.  It’s sort of teaching … in the story it’s showing how she overcame those obstacles and still achieved her goal, her dream.

Toni: And so that really is a personal way for who you inspire and how you go about it, as you said, through your writing and being very, very honest and open so that people can learn from that experience.

Kelly: You know, so many people, they try to sugar-coat things to try to … to me, it makes the person live in a world of fantasy when we don’t actually live in a world of fantasy, we live in a world of reality. So I think if you’re armed and you’re prepared for certain situations, it allows you to handle those situations a lot better.

Toni: Now what about you?  How do you come to inspiration?  What inspires you?

Kelly: Actually, I have a thirst, and I’ve always been this way, like for knowledge.  I spend hours of free time – well, since the internet came out because you can go on the internet and find everything – researching, reading, just to increase my knowledge base.  I’ve always been that way.  That’s my inspiration.  When I read stories of other people and their achievements, that pushes me to do more.

Toni: Well, let me … that’s a great segue … aren’t you also a part of the DO Foundation?

Kelly: Yes.  Co-Founder of the DO Foundation.

Toni: Can you give us a little background on that, how you came to do something like that?

Kelly: Well, Brian and I, we both had an interest in those less fortunate, and back when … for years, I’ve always been the one, like I said, that the kids … if the mom put them out of the house, I’d take them in, or different family members or friends.  I’ve always had that passion to help people.

We used to talk, you know, for a long time about the homeless situation and how sad it was that the awareness is there, but people kind of ignore it like it’s not that serious when it really is.  So Brian brought up the idea of the DO Foundation, and we tossed it around for a while and then finally decided that we would implement it, and it’s been sort of viral – it’s taken off.

Toni: Now how does that inspire you?

Kelly: It inspires me because of the warmth that you get from helping somebody.  There’s so much that we want to do that we’re not in a position to do right now, but we will be.  But there’s a little bit that we give like when we go out and we hand out gloves or shoes to a woman who hasn’t had shoes in a while, or food.  Just for that moment, to see their faces and their appreciation, that’s inspiration for me enough to keep going and doing it.

Toni: Have you always been like that, Kelly?  Have you always been candid and frank in helping others?

Kelly: Always.  I used to get in trouble when I was a kid.  They would be like “Use a little tact.”  I’m like “I’m not trying to be mean, but …”

Toni: But was it just the way you were to get things done or just the way you were to get people to move?

Kelly: It was just the way I was.  I don’t think I was raised that way.  I’m not for sure … I don’t remember my dad ever really being that way.  It’s just the way that I was.  It’s just something in me to say “Look, why would you sugar-coat it?”  It takes more time when you sugar-coat things to get it done when you should just be right on the spot, boom.

Toni: And Do Something!

Kelly: Right.

Toni: That’s a very appropriate goal.

Kelly: Why go around the block when you can just go right down the street?

Toni: And take no prisoners along the way.

Kelly: Right, right!

Toni: How do you then continue to explore your own potential, Kelly, so that you can keep doing the great work that you’re doing?

Kelly: I keep educating myself.  I don’t pretend to know everything, so I try to keep educating myself.  I like to surround myself with people who can add to my knowledge base.  I work hard.

There’s a lot of things that I want to achieve before I leave, and I want to be an example.  You can always preach to people, but if you’re not an example, then they’re not going to follow.  I want to live by an example.

Toni: When you say that you … you also referred to the same statement as far as things that inspire you, which is, you said you have a huge thirst for knowledge, and then to continuously explore your potential you said that you want to surround yourself with knowledge.  Is there an area that excites you the most, that really gets you, that you’re drawn to in a knowledge area, in an information area?

Kelly: A particular area?

Toni: Yeah, that would …

Kelly: I wouldn’t say an area.  I write fiction, but I don’t read it.

Toni: Okay.

Kelly: I read all nonfiction.  Educational things.  I work in the music industry, so I like to stay on top of things in the music industry with writing.  I like to stay on top of things with that.  I like to read biographies, because that tells me from where people came and then where they are now.  I think my thirst for knowledge is just for continuous factual information, nonfiction.

I love creativity, don’t get me wrong.  I can create.  I used to do poetry and things like that.  Creativity is fantastic, but as far as my own personal preference, I love things that I can learn from and I can take with me.

Toni: It sounds to me as though that’s … in this interview with you, with what you guys are doing with the DO Foundation — and we will also have a link to your Foundation and how to get a hold of you at the bottom of this interview on the Get Inspired! Project as well as spotlighting your Foundation on our Project page so people can find out the wonderful things you guys are doing — but the theme for me that I’m taking away from you in this interview is that your frankness, you’re open, your honesty, your thirst for knowledge is all about facts, making it happen, how did they do it, and getting it done.

Kelly: Right.

Toni: If that isn’t very much in line with what you guys are doing with the Do Something, the common theme has been all through this interview.

Kelly: Well, thank you.  I like to stay on that side.

Toni: Well you know what, you were there.  Whether it was purposeful or not, you were there.

Kelly: It wasn’t intentional, I’m just talking.

Toni: Well, you were lovely.

Kelly: Just being honest.

Toni: Absolutely.  Well thank you so much, Kelly, and really congratulations on the fantastic work that you guys are doing.

Kelly: Well, thank you.

Toni: I hope to see the impact of what you’re doing on a larger scale very, very soon.

Kelly: Oh, and you will, definitely.

Toni: Well, we thank you from the Get Inspired! Project.  Take care.

Kelly: Thank you, Toni.  You too.

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For more information about Kelly Adolph:  www.dofoundation.net, info@dofoundation.net

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